The aim of this thesis was to propose a more relevant analysis of the workings of interorganisational relations between furniture manufacturers and transporters in France, by studying the practices of the employees. The choice of a communicational approach was based on a wish to go beyond traditional theoretical models and to promote a dynamic, process-orientated approach. This has made it possible to understand the central, organising role of the conversational activity of these operators in the successful resolving of issues, as well as the esssential place of symbolic tools and mediations. The workings of the concrete practices of interorganisational relations have been analysed with particular attention to contextualisation, and by focussing our study on operators' verbal interaction within situations.
